U.S. birth and fertility rates drop to record lows, according to CDC report

[Michie]

Provisional data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this week showed that the fertility rate in the United States hit a record low and the total number of births in the country was the lowest it’s been in decades.

According to the report, slightly fewer than 3.6 million babies were born in 2023, or 54.4 births per 1,000 women aged 15 through 44. This was a 2% decline in total births and a 3% decline in births per 1,000 women when compared with the previous year.

The total fertility rate, which estimates how many children an average woman would have over the course of her life based on the yearly data, was just over 1.6 births per woman, which was a 2% decline from the previous year. This is well below the replacement rate needed to sustain a population, which is about 2.1 births per woman over her life.

This was the fewest number of babies born in the United States in a year since 1979 and the lowest fertility rate recorded in American history — just under the previous record lows set in 2020.

Continued below.

CDC report: U.S. birth and fertility rates drop to record lows

The total fertility rate, which estimates how many children an average woman would have over the course of her life, was just over 1.6 births per woman.

www.catholicnewsagency.com

 

[chevyontheriver]

Provisional data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this week showed that the fertility rate in the United States hit a record low and the total number of births in the country was the lowest it’s been in decades.

According to the report, slightly fewer than 3.6 million babies were born in 2023, or 54.4 births per 1,000 women aged 15 through 44. This was a 2% decline in total births and a 3% decline in births per 1,000 women when compared with the previous year.

The total fertility rate, which estimates how many children an average woman would have over the course of her life based on the yearly data, was just over 1.6 births per woman, which was a 2% decline from the previous year. This is well below the replacement rate needed to sustain a population, which is about 2.1 births per woman over her life.

This was the fewest number of babies born in the United States in a year since 1979 and the lowest fertility rate recorded in American history — just under the previous record lows set in 2020.

Continued below.

CDC report: U.S. birth and fertility rates drop to record lows

The total fertility rate, which estimates how many children an average woman would have over the course of her life, was just over 1.6 births per woman.

www.catholicnewsagency.com

There is good news hidden within the bad news. It was feared that the Covid vaccines would affect fertility. Doesn’t look to be the case, or at least any effect would be tiny.

The really bad news is that Black and Native American fertility is in the tank. That and that generally we are well below the 2.1 rate needed to sustain a population without immigration. Lucky we do have immigration. Were it legal immigration though.

 

[Wolseley]

It's that way all over the entire developed world. Europe is even lower than we are, China is facing a demographic catastrophe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand are about the same as Europe, and even the Third World countries are dropping, although not as precipitously.

Sorry, Paul. You ruffled a lot of feathers back in the day, but it turns out you were dead wrong.

 

[chevyontheriver]

It's that way all over the entire developed world. Europe is even lower than we are, China is facing a demographic catastrophe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand are about the same as Europe, and even the Third World countries are dropping, although not as precipitously.

Sorry, Paul. You ruffled a lot of feathers back in the day, but it turns out you were dead wrong.


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I don’t know if Erlich himself said it but an idea from his neighborhood was that aid to such countries as India wasn’t worth bothering about because they were a totally lost cause. Today India is a food exporter.

 

[Wolseley]

I don’t know if Erlich himself said it but an idea from his neighborhood was that aid to such countries as India wasn’t worth bothering about because they were a totally lost cause. Today India is a food exporter.

Yeah, it's remarkable how often these "experts" stumble in their predictions.

I remember seeing a cartoon from 1908, 1909 or so, in a magazine once. It showed a man and a woman, supposedly in 1960, sitting on a park bench, looking up at the sky. The woman says, "Why, look! There goes an aeroplane!" The man replies, "Yes, you hardly ever see them any more. It's amazing how fast these silly fads die out."

I suspect the cartoonist's gift of prophecy had a governor attached to it.